ACHR REVIEW[Special
Issues for the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights]

Embargoed
for 19 January 2005
Review:
CHR61/56/2005

Indonesia:
Restore trust

The election of
H.E. Makarim Wibisono, Ambassador of Indonesia to the United
Nations in Geneva on 17 January 2004 as the Chairperson of
the 61st session of the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights (CHR) to be held in Geneva from 14 March to
22 April 2004 provides an opportunity to Indonesia to reiterate
her commitment to democracy, good governance, human rights
and fundamental freedoms. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United
Nations in Geneva, H.E. Ambassador Shaukat Umer, reportedly sought permission
from Islamabad to chair the 61st session of the
CHR. Although India’s Ambassador H.E. Hardeep Puri was one
of the most serious candidates, New Delhi, which has been
a member of the CHR without any interruption since 1947, does
not want to play a prominent role on human rights issues at
international level.

The
election of Ambassador Wibison
is not without its pitfalls. The Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was
reportedly preparing a legal opinion on the judgement
of the Indonesian courts acquitting the persons
responsible for the crimes perpetrated in East Timor in 1999. Twelve of the eighteen defendants were acquitted.
Four defendants who were found guilty received
nominal sentences but all these sentences were
overturned. Only two Timorese were found guilty
by the appeal court but one of the verdicts of

Courtesy:
www.bbcworldservice.com

the appeal court too was overturned by Indonesia’s
Supreme Court
in November 2004. Effectively, Indonesia's domestic mechanisms
have failed to address the crimes in East Timor. With Indonesia
as the Chair, the legal opinion of the OHCHR on the issue
is unlikely to be made public. Similarly, the ongoing criminal
investigation into the murder of one of Indonesia’s most outspoken
and respected human rights defenders, Munir, under suspicious
circumstances on a plane to the Netherlands is unlikely to
be completed before the 61st session of the CHR.
The post mortem of November 2004 confirmed that Munir had
died due to arsenic poisoning in the flight.

Late High Commissioner for
Human Rights Sergio VieiraDe Mello sought to promote
development of “certain minimum standards” for membership
to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. De Mello
referred to ratification of all core human rights conventions, translating those into
national legislation and extending a standing invitation to
all special procedures (Special Rapporteurs, Working Groups
and Independent Experts) which are created by the very Commission
on Human Rights.

While most governments oppose
such ideas, Indonesia can take the lead to restore the credibility
of the CHR.

There is no better person
than President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), the first directly elected President of Indonesia
to convey the message. President SBY should address
the High Level Segment of the 61st session of the
CHR to reiterate Indonesia’s irreversible road to democracy
and announce the ratification of core international human
rights instruments and to extend open ended invitations to
the Special Procedures of the CHR. Indonesia has already ratified
the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and there is no reason
as to why other core instruments such as International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and Optional Protocol to the CAT
should not be ratified. Given the ill-treatment of its migrant
workers in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and other countries
in the Middle East, Indonesia should also ratify the International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families.

Undoubtedly, President SBY
needs to do some homework to receive the applause of international
community should he address the 61st session of
the CHR. And it is already underway.

The tsumani disaster forced
informal cease-fire agreements between Free
Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) and the Indonesian
government.
The cease-fire should not be temporary only to mean to facilitate
distribution of aid and reconstruction of destroyed Aceh.
Rather, efforts should be made to utilise the opportunity
to find a solution to the crisis in Aceh through dialogue.
The statement of Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda today i.e. 19 January
2005 that formal talks with GAM may be held at the end of
this month is encouraging. Should progress
be made on formal cease-fire and subsequent dialogue with
the GAM, the release of five Acehnese leaders - Sofyan Tiba, Muhammad Usman
Lampoh Awe, T. Kamaruzaman, Nashiruddin bin Ahmed and Amni
bin Ahmad Marzuki –who took part in peace negotiations with
the government and were arrested immediately after a truce
broke down and convicted for subversion, could be an important
confidence building measure.

The implementation of the
Papua Special Autonomy Law of 2001 will help to restore the
faith of the Acehnese. On 11 November 2004, Indonesian Constitutional
Court gave its ambiguous judgement on Law No. 45/1999 on the
division of Papua that has been strongly opposed by the Papuans.
The Constitutional Court declared Law 45/1999 unconstitutional
and thus invalid as on the date of the verdict. However, in
its legal considerations it provided the opinion that the
Province of West Irian Jaya (West Papua), which had been established
based on Law 45/1999 and the corresponding implementing legislation,
is valid, unless the Court decides otherwise. Unless President
SBY administration takes measures to implement the Papua Special
Autonomy Law of 2001 to stop the division of West Papua, peoples
of West Papua, Aceh, Molukas etc are unlikely to have much
faith in the federalism of Indonesia.

The 61st session
of the Commission on Human Rights is unlikely to be stormy
like the previous three sessions which were dominated by the
crisis in West Asia. However, within the Commission on Human
Rights, H.E. Wibisono
needs to prevail upon the rubble rousers who do not belong
to any of the five geographical blocs of the United Nations
but identify themselves as the Like Minded Group (LMG). The
LMG consists of “who is who?” in the list of human rights
violators - Bangladesh,
Bhutan, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam from Asia;
Zimbabwe, Algeria and Sudan from the African group and Cuba
from Group of Latin America and Caribbean (GRULAC). The LMG
has been singularly responsible for destruction of the mechanisms
of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. At the 60th
session, the Permanent Representative of China speaking on
behalf of the LMG on the organisation of work on 15 March
2004 suggested that country resolutions under Agenda Item
9 be done away with. The Ambassador of China also suggested
measures for destruction of the Special Procedures – nomination
of the Special Procedures through elections, development of
a code of conduct
for the special procedures and development of admissibility
criteria of the complaints, which most governments inherently
deny.

Mexico was a member of the
LMG but since the election of President Vincente Fox, Mexico
has played a critical role at the Commission on Human Rights
and is no longer a member of the LMG. Mexico is yet to find
a solution to the problem in the Chiapas but it was the principle
sponsor of the resolutions on the appointment of Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms
of indigenous peoples (2001/57)and Independent Expert on protection of human rights
and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (2004/87).

Indonesia could also develop
its own policy on human rights irrespective of the conflicts
at home and disassociate herself from the LMG to restore trust
across the spectrum.